North Korea considering suspending nuclear talks with US

"'On our way back to the homeland, our chairman of the state affairs commission [Kim] said, 'For what reason do we have to make this train trip again?" she said. "I want to make it clear that the gangster-like stand of the US will eventually put the situation in danger".

North Korea threatened on Friday to suspend negotiations with the US and resume nuclear and missile testing, BBC News reported.

On Monday, the United States special representative for North Korea said Washington would not accept a phased denuclearization by Pyongyang and maintained that the two nations remain closely engaged despite the collapse of the Hanoi summit. "While we haven't made as much progress in the six months as I would've hoped coming in on the first day, we stay closely engaged with our counterparts in North Korea". "In any situation, our government will endeavor for the restart of North Korea-U.S. negotiations", the office of South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Friday. "We'll look at ramping those sanctions up in fact", Bolton said.

Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University, says Kim Jong Un's message may be an indication the North Korean leader was indirectly expressing a willingness to continue talking to U.S. President Trump if Washington took action to bridge the gap between the two sides.

His comments follow a suggestion by North Korean-Vice Foreign Minister Choe Sun-hui that denuclearisation talks might end and testing could resume.

"President Trump has said for some time that he was open to talks and he would willingly meet with Kim when conditions were right. It's the administration's desire that we continue to have conversations around this".

Mr Trump and Mr Pompeo clearly stated after last month's talks that North Korean officials had asked for full sanctions relief.

The Asian Forum Japan's Senior Fellow, Jonathan Berkshire Miller, said that following the "humiliating" summit in Hanoi, Kim used his address to reiterate to the global community that North Korea wasn't looking to have all sanctions dating back to 2009 removed, but the sanctions that have been the most impactful.

Ms Choe said in Pyongyang that Mr Kim would decide whether to stick to the launch and test moratorium, and she expects him to "clarify his position" soon. "I'd like to speak further within the USA government before we respond". "We'll see what happens with North Korea, the same way we're going to see what happens in the negotiations with China".

Deputy Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui had taken pains to tell reporters that President Donald Trump was not the problem, stressing that ties between him and leader Kim Jong Un were "still good and the chemistry is mysteriously wonderful", according to the NY times. "We have every expectation that he will live up to that commitment".

South Korea, which has an ambitious agenda of engagement with North Korea that is dependent on Pyongyang and Washington resolving at least some of their differences, said it was too early to tell what Choe's comments might mean.

US envoy Stephen Biegun has also ruled out doing denuclearization "incrementally", although he insisted on Monday that diplomacy was "still very much alive".

In Beijing, Premier Li Keqiang urged patience and further dialogue between North Korea and the United States.